India thrash Cambodia to start Nehru Cup in style
New Delhi, Aug 18: After India's thumping 6-0 win against Cambodia in the ONGC Nehru Cup football, coach Bob Houghton said it was the lush green turf of Ambedkar stadium that helped the home team in churning out the agressive performance. "It is the one of the best surfaces that we have ever played in India. If boys get to play in such quality turfs then they can produce the kind of football that they displayed today. It is not possible to produce such quality play in fields of Kolkata where we lost to Saudi Arabia last year," Houghton said in the post match conference. The coach said today's massive win would be a big morale booster for the rest of the tournament. "After a long time we have scored so many goals in an international match and it will be a confidence booster for the boys for the rest of the tournament," he said. "The boys played very well even in the first half though we scored only two goals. We played very well in the first 20-25 minutes and we kept attacking. We got only one goal in that period. It was nice to go 2-0 up just before the half time because we played really well," he said. Asked about some missed chances in the first half Houghton said he was only focussing on drawing positives from the match."Today the passing was good and we kept attacking. Yes we missed some chances but that shows that we got so many opportunities," he said. Skipper Bhaichung Bhutia said the result would inspire the team for bigger battles ahead. "We have to be positive and play like we did today. We played an attacking game and it is got be the same for the entire tournament. "The scoreline was good and we need to do well in this tournament so that we can do well in Olympic qualifiers," said a beaming Bhutia, who also scored a goal through a penalty.
